Monday, August 9, 2010

Dogs, ALPACAS and Me....

Cabal goes in to the U of M vets today and has his TPLO surgery tomorrow. That's to repair a torn tendon on his back leg, he had the other leg done last year and can now use it perfectly. He will be laid up for 6 weeks or so, no stairs, no running, no outside off leash, but after that, he ought to be good to GO! (Once again let me say what a GREAT idea Doggie Health Insurance is.)

We hope to have him home by Thursday, if all goes well, possibly even Wednesday.

The not pictured today Puppy Lola has her first Dog School Class tonight. I know, you say "But Lorraine, we thought she already went to Dog School and took that class????" That was the last session. This is a new session. She did well last time but has not mastered the concept of "Other dogs are friends and not something you try and kill" so she is taking it again. Lucky for her fellow Dog Students.

People have been captioning my ALPACA photo, REALLY funny, here's a link to the responses. Also, I'd better clarify, they are not my ALPACAs . (No, I don't know why I feel the need to write ALPACA all in caps, I just DO.) I do not have an ALPACA, nor am I planning on getting one, tho I did enter the "Win a free ALPACA" drawing, and just exactly how funny would that be??? I just like them. They are cute. And sweet. Not like Llama (Sorry Joan of Dark!) who are arrogant and disdainful. Ok, so these guys don't look FRIENDLY exactly, but they make the BEST noises. I need to sample ALPACA talk on my next cd. Here's a link to a sort of ALPACA Zen Meditation. (If you're up for it, You Tube has WAY more ALPACA noise vid's than one would think likely.)

Here's today insptational photo. That's my Naptown Roller Girls jersey with my number 12 and Roller Girl name on it, sent to me by ACTUAL Naptown Roller Girl, Joan of Dark! I keep it on the board in my office (along with a Dr Who calendar still on July apparently and a handy Ukulele) as it does not currently FIT me. It's tight.

It will not be come end of October, and I will wear it when I meet these Roller Girls at House on the Rock.

*skritches* and *pets* to Big Dog. He's had more than his fair share of medical stuff, so hopefully this one is it.

Having experienced Miss Lola and Other Dogs- yeah. I can see Round II for the girl. She's so damn smart.

HOTR...y'all better Twitter and Twitpic and and...I am so SAD to not be able to go. Fiends AND a bunch of other friends coming in from all over. So close and yet so far.

It looks like Rory will get a vet checkout this week. SUCH a totally different kitty than the almost-dead one a couple of weeks ago. Curious, affectionate...I hope we get the all-clear to integrate all the pets. She and Mika the Dog have met and are pretty relaxed around each other.

Sending best wishes and healing vibes to Cabal and calming vibes to Lola

I bet the shirt Sending best wishes and healing vibes to Cabal and calming vibes to Lola

I bet the shirt will be loose by then! I'm really sad I'm gonna miss the House on the Rock gig. DV is making our Wooley Worm Festival plans for that weekend this week. Why does everything have to happen on conflicting weekends?

OK, let's see if this post? will be loose by then! I'm really sad I'm gonna miss the House on the Rock gig. DV is making our Wooley Worm Festival plans for that weekend this week. Why does everything have to happen on conflicting weekends?

Good luck Cabal-baby! You will be so happy after all this rotten leg stuff is done for good.

And yes, having a German Shepherd growing up, all is familiar. Sasha not only had the tendon surgery Cabal had (chasing bees, no less), until age 5 or so, she seemed to also believe that certain dogs were there to be attacked. They were always pretty, fluffy dogs, OR little dogs who felt it was their duty to snarl/bark at her loudly. She even dragged me and my 11-year old body all the way across the obedience class ring on day to fight another dog who loved to fight as much as she did. Eventually she grew out of it, but as good of a people dog as she was, and as much as she considered our cat the "alpha dog" of the house, certain dogs were simply PREY in her mind.

I want to go. i should just make plans and show up. any fiends a traveling and wan to be carmates/roommate/just plain mates?

i LOVE the shirt. i'm kind of scared of alpacas, they could trample me. trampled by a sweater.

for those with tickbox issues like me where i am never signed in. write your post. click preview. the preview pops up, close it. do not publish from the preview box or you will miss the option to tickbox. once the popup is closed, you will have the option to subscribe to emails. the pop up box is a bad invention by blooger and i do not like.

Shiraz is sending licks to Cabal, and says that she hopes his second surgery & recovery goes as well as her second round did. And from her humans - good luck and energy for surviving the next 6 weeks. Ironical that we were going through all that a year ago!

Fablo, the only place I'm seeing it is on Facebook... and if you should happen to have any information on the costume contest other than... Boss will judge it.... I'd love to know. Are there, for instance, limitations on making/buying costumes? Different classes of costume? Or just Boss's reaction? (Nothing wrong with that, if so, just want to know.)

I'm not going anywhere for a while. I'm building up my bank account from lots and LOTS and lots of work. And, I'm doing a budget thing for the first time in my life. It's time for me to see where that money GOES.

Oh dear. You're having my nightmare. :( I take it there's no Big Drain in the middle of the floor somewhere-- you'd just broom it off in that case. How much water? I am hoping this is a job for towels or mops, and not a bucket-chain.

The pond in my basement is greatly reduced (Yay!) by the application of two box fans on the stairs on "high". Water was only about 3 inches at it's deepest, so the air movement seems to be making for speedy evaporation.

Our Gayle has Rory at the vet right now. She's an old girl (I suspected), there are some bad teeth and her kidney function is getting checked.

*sigh*

I will do my best for her. She's a love and deserves a soft, loving landing after what she went through.

Beez, you are an angel! I am thinking positive thoughts that something will happen to allow us to at least visit a bit in October. Must start hatching Fiendish Plans. Maybe Cara and Revelle will be my minions and help me devise a Fiend Meet-up Ray...

Fun - right! Ahahaha!!!!! I'm still horrified at the cluster**** that resulted from helping one of my family members get through a divorce... I think I need another dose of my medicine, now that I think of it.

Okay, I just talked to the vet. Rory's blood sugar was 430- it doesn't READ any higher than that. She needs to go on insulin as soon as we can do it.

Good lord. The poor girl.

My Paypal account is under marybz56@yahoo.com.

Thanks so much for whatever help we get- it was because of all of you that she was able to get her vet check today- besides the fabulous Gayle's madnegotiating skilz with the vet's office, as well as driving Rory to her appointment

I'm going to go get a glucose monitor so I can keep an eye on her blood sugars at home. It's the best way to track them and her insulin dosage, and not too expensive to boot.

Beez, I am going to email you.I was able to get Tysie in remission really quickly just by changing her diet and getting her off all dry food.The very first thing you should do is go and join the forum at http://www.yourdiabeticcat.comFor anyone here who has a diabetic cat, and hasn't gone to this website please do. This has become one of my hobby horses - Tysie has been able to educate our vets and specialists here with the story of the course of her diabetes.

Sally, that's the second time I've run into info on that forum this afternoon. I'm joining! I'm going to try to wean Rory off of the kibble- although I did get a diabetic prescription food for her today.

As of now, she will only eat the dry- I have tried her on Halo canned and also plain chicken. With her bad teeth, you'd think she would like the soft stuff but nooooo....

Mary, the link above has some advice about weaning cats off of dry food. Good luck.

My vet thinks cats should never have just dry food - her reason being that if cats have never had canned food and then need to have only it, sometimes there is a problem. But there are a lot of opinions out there and we kind of read through them and decided what makes sense.

Sorry I wasn't elaborate enough in my comment as dinner was hitting the table. The point of my comment is there are various reasons for various foods and types there of. I think saying all cats should eat raw foods is incorrect. Just like people digestive systems vary greatly in domestic cats. I have a friend who can not eat any meat because his body will not digest. If I go too long without meat my iron plummets and I have health issues. I have had cats that have to have grass available to eat so they could digest properly. Opinions vary greatly across vets and humans that belong to cats. Different cats have different needs, and each should be judged by their own systems and not what the cat next door can eat.

So yes a diabetic cat should eat well for a diabetic, but I do not think I am a bad cat human because I feed my cats kibble and wet food. That is what my vet recommends and is important for one of my cats to have the kibble so he doesn't get ill.